Re: patch to fix text color in PDF output

[Andrew Hawryluk]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 10:22 PM, Andrew Hawryluk<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 7:33 AM, David Kastrup<address@hidden> wrote:
>> Andrew Hawryluk <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 3:11 AM, David Kastrup<address@hidden> wrote:
>>>> Andrew Hawryluk <address@hidden> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Long ago I noticed that the text in our PDF manuals is fully black,
>>>>> which results in rough-looking text when printed:
>>>>> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-devel/2008-10/msg00059.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Attached is a patch which corrects this, and the printed output is
>>>>> noticeably improved. (The on-screen output is nearly
>>>>> indistinguishable.)
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll send this to the TexInfo folks as well.
>>>>>
>>>>> Andrew
>>>>> From b2608a3c68f677729d5b72379d18b978b8c6236a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>>>>> From: Andrew Hawryluk <address@hidden>
>>>>> Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:14:42 -0600
>>>>> Subject: [PATCH] Fix TexInfo PDF output text color
>>>>>
>>>>> Changed CMKY colors to RGB colors, as RGB black prints
>>>>> better than CMYK black on home printers.
>>>>
>>>> In that case, the "home printer" is broken.  It might be conceivable to
>>>> use greyscale black as an alternative, but RGB black appears like a bad
>>>> choice for printing.
>>>>
>>>> Could you specify the details of your "home printer"?
>>>
>>> I have had identical results on two monochrome laser printers, using
>>> both Evince and Acrobat Reader. The home printer is a Samsung ML-2010;
>>> I don't remember what the work printer is. In either case, they seem
>>> to compensate for the fact that cmyk (0 0 0 1) is not the darkest tone
>>> available. Do you get different results in print?
>>
>> Sure do.  So what driver with what setting converts your PDF to the
>> respective printer language?
>>
>> --
>> David Kastrup
>>
>
> Good question.
> At home: Samsung ML-2010, SpliX V. 2.0.0 on Ubuntu 9.04 (evince or acroread)
> At work: not sure, Windows XP and Adobe Acrobat 9.0 (Yes, I have just
> confessed to having printed a bit of LilyPond documentation at work.)
>
> I have also now tried monochrome black with CMYK red, which is
> probably the best output option, but the TeX code could be cleaned up.
> I have attached sample pages of the original and my latest variation
> for comparison. Perhaps someone else can print both pages and see a
> difference.
>
> Thanks, David, for humoring me as I figure this out!
>
> Andrew
>

Attachments actually attached this time.

essayCMYKblack.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

essayMonoBlack.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document